Enriching the lives of neighborhood youth through diverse and engaging programs at the Cook Arts Center and the Cook Library Center.

Monday, August 22, 2011

The Electric Company!

As the end of summer gets closer and everyone starts thinking about going back to school, students at the Cook Library Center are excited and ready - they've been keeping their brains sharp throughout the summer with the Electric Company program.

The Cook Library Center was proud to offer PBSkids “The Electric Company” Summer Learning program to enthusiastic students. For six weeks, students did activities, watched video segments, played educational computer games and completed worksheets that strengthened math and literacy skills.

The Electric Company curriculum helped to fill the summer learning gap; students especially liked words and activities that explored units of measure. Throughout the summer, students learned over 60 new vocabulary words in English and in Spanish!
Six assistant teachers (ages 11‐14) also worked with Ms. Eva to develop their leadership and mentoring abilities. Assistant teachers helped daily in the classroom with things like helping students learn how to tell time by comparing analog and digital clocks, helping students spell words and more. By helping younger students learn, they themselves learned a lot about leadership, collaboration, responsibility and positive reinforcement. Below are two assistant teachers, Tascha (left) and Macirra (right), that helped with the Electric Company all summer. They learned a lot about running a class room and encouraging students: one week, Tascha (age 14) even led a whole class session!
With the help of these young assistants, many students were able to build confidence and get excited about learning. Domingo (below in blue shirt) really came out of his shell throughout the course of the program. At one point, he even asked for homework!
Students also learned how to work together. Below, Marshawn and Maynor (both age 6) work together on computer activities that reinforced that day’s lesson.
The end of the summer family day was held last week and students were proud to show off their new skills and knowledge to family members. Parents were proud of their kids for working hard all summer and, in order to celebrate, brought in a surprise cake and piñata for all to enjoy. Students also received their certificates of program completion and said their bittersweet goodbyes to the summer.
Now that the summer is winding down, Electric Company students look back and realize they learned a lot and had fun doing it, and now they also know the “electric” power of knowledge!